The gods were said to have skins of gold, in Ancient Egypt.

It is why pharaohs were buried in gold sarcophagi, faces covered in masks of the metal. They had rejoined the divine, and were now made of gold again.

In a world of hardship, rust and toil, this metal that never tarnished — and remained untouched even by fire — took on something of the burnish of the sun itself.

It was collected, crafted and used with reverence in the islands of the Caribbean, the ancient civilisations of Greece and South America, in Harappan India and prehistoric Europe.

From ancient Wales and Turkey to Cote d’Ivoire, it turned up wherever the powerful and wealthy lived, partied, waged war or were buried.

The oldest known processed gold dates back 6,000 years, and was found in present-day Bulgaria. Necklaces, bracelets and a sceptre found in the grave of what is believed to have been a tribal leader are considered the first evidence of complex social hierarchies in the historical record.

The artisans working on these pieces would have been the best in their field. Only the Cartiers and Tiffanys of their day would have been trusted with commissions this prestigious and material this valuable. Some of this superb craftsmanship is notable even centuries later, in items such as a warrior’s shield bearing a stylised crocodile, made in 700 CE Panama; or an intricately crafted ornamental wreath covered in gold-foil leaves, from Ancient Greece.

Interestingly, while much of the ancient world buried a person’s valuables with them for use in their next life, Indians seem to have always hoarded it, to pass on to the next generation.

Harappan artefacts dating to 2,000 BCE, including pendants and brooches, were found hidden in recesses in the floors of homes, tijoris of a different day.

There was never enough gold to satisfy demand in India, says historian William Dalrymple.

The country’s relatively modest reserves were only tapped at scale in the 19th century. Deposits in the Deccan were mined on a smaller scale before then, mainly by medieval rulers. “The metal was largely fetched from elsewhere, making it exotic and immensely valued in India culture,” Dalrymple says.

His new book, The Golden Road, released this week by Bloomsbury, traces India’s intricately woven history with the metal. 

Meanwhile, in a lavish tribute to what gold has meant to different cultures through history, the Brooklyn Museum is celebrating its 200th anniversary with an exhibition of more than 400 objects drawn from its permanent collection and from museums around the world. The exhibition Solid Gold opens in November and runs through July.

“The aim is to create a collision and juxtaposition of works, and a conversation on why this metal was chosen to be so valued,” says senior curator Matthew Yokobosky.

Pulling the collection together proved more difficult than he had thought, he adds. Yokobosky would pick the most exquisite and finely crafted artefacts tagged as gold, for instance, only to find, when they were scanned, that they were made from bronze or copper instead. Most musical instruments were found to contain either trace amounts of it or none at all — because gold, to put it plainly, makes a dreadful noise.

In all, Yokobosky spent two years drawing up and redrawing his list. “I’ve had some disappointments and had to rethink my design. It’s been heartbreaking,” he says.

What he did eventually compile, however, was a collection of marvels of design and workmanship, tokens of love and remembrance, odes to vanity, bravery and wealth. These include the intricately crafted Greek wreath, the crocodile shield from Panama, and gilded Art Deco panels from a luxury French ocean liner from the 1930s.

“Because of gold’s incredible versatility, it has served as a form of communication in every era,” he says. “Be it the lavish jewellery people wore in the past or the chips embedded in our smartphones today, we are always inventing new ways to work it.”

What have been some of the most exquisite? Take a look.

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The oldest gold on record; Bulgaria; 4,600-4,200 BCE

Hundreds of tombs discovered in Varna, Bulgaria, in the 1970s hold some of the oldest processed gold in the world. A single grave, Tomb 43, was found to contain 990 gold objects, draped on what is believed to be the remains of a tribal leader. Among the artefacts buried with him were necklaces, bracelets and a sceptre.#

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A gleaming wrap; Wales; 1900-1600 BCE

This cape in punched gold was made from a single sheet of the metal. It was discovered near the town of Mold in Wales in 1833, and is so finely crafted that it could be described as the work of “the Cartiers or the Tiffanys of Bronze Age Europe,” Neil MacGregor, former director of the British Museum, writes in his book A History of the World in 100 Objects (2010).

What’s interesting is that it is so small that it was most likely worn by a teenager, perhaps even a teen girl, highlighting the role of young people in the prehistoric world. “The cape is just one example of several precious objects that tell us that societies in Britain must then have been extremely sophisticated, both in their manufacture and in their social structure,” writes MacGregor.*

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Jewel of the Nile; Egypt; 1327-1318 BCE

Described by the British archaeologist Howard Carter as “the most beautiful thing found to date in Egypt”, this was the ceremonial throne of the boy-king Tutankhamun. His tomb was opened by Carter in 1922. This was among the treasures inside. The throne is covered in a 3-mm-thick sheet of embossed gold. Art on the inside of the backrest shows Tutankhamun’s wife, Queen Ankhesenamun, applying ointment to the shoulder of the king while a powerful sun shines down on the couple. This artefact remains one of the most well-preserved pieces of furniture left over from Ancient Egypt.#

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Pieces of eight; Turkey; c. 550 BCE

Croesus, the obscenely wealthy king of Lydia (in present-day Turkey) was one of the first to have coins minted from precious metals such as gold. Before the coins, gold and silver were simply traded by weight, in lumps.

These early coins bear no royal inscriptions, just a stamp confirming their weight. Don’t look for numbers; the weight was indicated by the parts of a lion. Larger coins, like this one, featured a lion and bull in combat; the lowest-value ones featured just a lion’s paw.*

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An early tiara; Greece; 300-200 BCE

This exquisite wreath consists of a heavy tube holding up delicately fashioned leaves and flowers made from thick, glossy gold foil. Such ornaments were worn as adornment or as indications of achievement or social status. Victorious athletes, for instance, were crowned with wreaths; and nobles wore such wreaths to lavish dinner parties, records from Ancient Greece show.+

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Fairest of them all; China; 618-907 CE

This bronze-lobed mirror covered in gold plaque was recovered from a merchant shipwreck in the Java Sea, in 1998, and is now housed at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. “In Tang China, these mirrors would have been purchased by the educated elite, but in the markets abroad they must have appeared not just very exotic but also authentically Chinese and thus highly desirable,” writes sinologist Regina Krahl in Shipwrecked: Tang Treasures and Monsoon Winds (2011).

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Crocodile rock; Panama; 700-900 CE

Among the ancient Coclé people of present-day Panama, embossed gold plaques were symbols of power and status. When Spanish explorers first arrived in the 16th century, indigenous leaders were still wearing these prominently on their chests, particularly in battle. They were typically made by hammering a gold sheet against a finely crafted mould. This plaque features a crocodile, an animal associated with great strength and revered for its ability to survive and prevail on land and in water.+

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Rivers of gold; Colombia; 1200-1500 CE

Discovered in a cave near Bogota in 1969 and now displayed in that city’s Museum of Gold, this intricate sculpture purportedly depicts the inauguration of a tribal chief of the Muisca people. The sheer abundance of such artefacts, hammered out of gold convinced Spanish explorers, when they first arrived here, that there were possibly “cities of gold” in the region. This sowed the seeds of the El Dorado myth, which even gives this artefact its name: The Golden Raft of El Dorado. That myth would play a key role in driving the West’s massive interest in the New World. Though, once the Mayflower landed in 1620, there really wasn’t any turning back.#

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Bench strength; Dominican Republic; 1200-1500 CE

These carved ceremonial stools called duho were reserved for important members of the Taino community, which was once widespread across the Caribbean and in present-day Florida. This particularly fine example, currently housed in the British Museum, uses fine wood carving and gold inlay to invoke a powerful and forbidding goggle-eyed creature. It is said that Christopher Columbus was likely offered a duho during Taino ceremonies, as he wandered through the Caribbean, insisting he was in India.*

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A prayer of thanks; Italy; mid-14th century

The Italian artist Nardo di Cione created this painting in the aftermath of the 1348 bubonic plague that decimated Florence. With its richly gilded detail, the painting — titled Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints Zenobius, John the Baptist, Reparata and John the Evangelist — was likely commissioned for a cathedral. Both the red-and-white banner and the bird that Jesus holds are symbols of resurrection.+

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A bird in the hand; India; 17th century

Even in a country obsessed with the metal, this stands out as an extraordinary extravagance. The peacock throne, imperial seat of the Mughal empire, is said to have been made from 1,150 kg of gold, encrusted with 230 kg of precious stones, including the Koh-i-Noor diamond.

It is said to have cost Shah Jahan (1592-1666) twice as much as the Taj Mahal.

It was so heavy that it is surprising Nader Shah of Iran managed to carry it away as he did, during his invasion of India in 1739. A replica was then made, and it is the replica that features in most of the artistic depictions from that era. Seen here, a 19th-century Mughal miniature titled Portrait of Shah Jahan on the Peacock Throne, currently housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

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House of Slitherin’; Côte d’Ivoire; 19th century

When the Akan people of Côte d’Ivoire chose a community leader, that leader would commission their regalia, which was then crafted in metal and worn as an ornament or embossed on the hilts of weapons such as swords. This pendant of a coiled snake with its head facing downward, holding a toad in its mouth, is believed to have been the regalia of Abrogoua, a powerful chief who died in 1811.+

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Seascape; France; 1934

This mural was created by the French artist Jean Dupas for the grand salon of the luxury ocean liner SS Normandie. A paragon of Art Deco design, the lavish finish was achieved using an expensive and labour-intensive method that involved layering thin, delicate sheets of gold and silver on glass, to produce a glistening, reflective surface.+

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Dramatic sweep; US; 1963

Layers of little leaves of gold-painted leather combine with beads and sequins to make the royal cape worn by Elizabeth Taylor in the Hollywood film Cleopatra (1963). While the story was based on the life of the 1st century BCE Egyptian queen, no evidence has been found that she ever wore such an outfit. In the movie, Cleopatra seems rather fond of it nonetheless. She wears it on her first visit to Rome; and puts it on again for the apocryphal finale of suicide by poisonous asp. The cape fetched over $59,000 at an auction in Dallas in 2012.#

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All that glitter; France; 2020

The Balenciaga Golden Ballroom Dress with its distinctive oversized bow was made using a yarn of gilded polyester, and was part of the French-Spanish fashion house’s Spring/Summer 2020 haute couture collection. It made news that year, and then in the following one, when it featured on an episode of The Simpsons. Marge made her runway debut in it; Homer struggled to pronounce the brand name (“Is it Balenciagaga?”). The dress is currently on loan from Balenciaga to the Brooklyn Museum for the duration of the exhibition.

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WHAT, WHEN, WHERE

# Items that remain in their country of origin

* Items now housed at the British Museum

+ Items from the Brooklyn Museum collection set to be on display as part of the exhibition Solid Gold

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